


Santiago Seven

by natasha_alianovna_romanoff



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: As i update, F/M, Fluff, Gen, I'm Bad At Tagging, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Some angst, i love how theres an actual tag for that, my first b99 fic!!, spams s1-s4 ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-06 00:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15875024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natasha_alianovna_romanoff/pseuds/natasha_alianovna_romanoff
Summary: The Santiago siblings spam 13 years and are a mess of intricate friendships and rivalries of different levels. But when it comes down to it, they are as close as family can be. So, when Amy gets a new boyfriend, all her seven brothers are incredibly curious.ORAll the Santiago brothers' first real memory of Jake being in Amy's life, from a call about confusing feelings to hospital visits to accidental meetings. Each chapter is a different brother's point of view





	1. Mateo

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably the worst time to start a new fic since school starts up again tomorrow, but I had this idea and I just had to write it. Updates won't be regular but I'll try my best to make them as frequent as possible! I hope you enjoy and that you love the Santiago brothers as much as I do!

Mateo was woken up with a start by a sudden obnoxious wailing filling the silent room. It took him a few long seconds more to realise the source of the sound was his phone, and not his baby girl in the next room. Most nights he would have considered ignoring the phone, but as his wife stirred next to him threatening to wake, he lunged for the phone in order to silence it. She hadn’t quite recovered from her exhaustion since the birth of their child, beating him to getting to Hannah every time she cried at night, maintaining that it was the logical thing to do since Mateo was the one who had to get up for work in the morning.

Within seconds the phone was in his hands. Upon noticing the caller ID his initial instinct to decline the call evaporated and he pressed the phone to his ear.

“Oh Mattie, thank god. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“Amy, its 2am.”

There was a pause on the other side of the line, presumably as his sister collected her thoughts. Suddenly her voice rang into his ear, a little more panicked than before: “Oh god, please tell me I didn’t wake Hannah! Mattie, I’m so sorry, I forgot. I- I’ll call back in the morning. No, no, you’re working, I’ll call after work, and-”

“Ames, stop. Hannah is asleep and so is Nicky. I’m all yours right now, sis. What’s up?” He barely managed to suppress a yawn, but the mix of hesitancy and urgency in his little sister’s voice demanded his attention.

“Thanks, Mattie.” He grinned at the nickname. She was the only one allowed to call him that, and as a child she had used the name abundantly around their brothers to make it clear that she was his favourite. And he let her, because he enjoyed knowing he was Amy’s favourite too. Maybe also because he liked rubbing it in Luis’ face, the other Santiago brother differing only two years in age from their one sister, though Luis was younger while Mateo was older.

“So…” he prompted.

“So. Do you remember anything I’ve told you about my co-workers?”

“Jake, right?”

“’Jake’? Your first thought was ‘Jake’? Damnit Mateo! What about Teddy? You know, my boyfriend, also a cop.”

Mateo cursed inwardly at her indignant tone. Of course this was about Teddy. Teddy was exactly the guy everyone had always expected Amy to come home with, a male version of herself, a perfect match. Mateo didn’t quite agree. All the two brought out in each other was a more intense version of what they already were, only encouraging each other to be more uptight instead of letting loose occasionally. Mateo was a Santiago, so he understood Amy’s perfectionism and work ethic, but she took it to lengths only their father would ever match. He was of the great belief that she was in desperate need of a break – and that Teddy would never offer her that.

“What’s wrong with Teddy?”

“What? No! This isn’t about Teddy, this is about Jake!”

“But you- Ah never mind. Ames, just tell me what’s going on, you sound upset.”

“Jake is going-” There was a pause while she clearly took a second to rephrase what she was saying. Then it came rushing out all in one breathe. “Jake got fired.”

“Oh Ames, I’m sorry. I know how close you two were. What with that bet and all,” he chuckled. “What did he even do to get fired?”

His sister huffed. “That’s not important. None of this is important. Except that we’re not close. I mean, I don’t think so, but he… Remember Teddy? Maybe he  _ is  _ the problem.”

“Amy! Don’t change the subject and get back to telling me about Jake!”

“I didn’t change the subject!” All that filled the line between them for several seconds was the sound of the increasingly frantic breaths Amy was gulping down. Mateo waited. “Jake maybe might’ve told me he liked me. Like ‘romantic stylez’. Listen to me! I sound like one of those cheerleaders in high school. Or like Jake! Who, by the way, I  _ maybe might like back _ !”

It all came out in a single breath, and it took Mateo a couple of seconds to decipher it all. Before he got a chance to answer, Amy was talking again.

“Forget I said any of that. It’s not true anyway. I mean, Jake did say all that but he was probably just a little out of it because he… got fired. And I have a boyfriend, who is stable and nice. Jake is just an immature child who doesn’t know what he wants. He’s a great friend who makes me laugh and knows me surprisingly well, don’t get me wrong, but nothing else. A friend.”

“Are you done, Amy?” He meant to make it sound like he was poking fun at her rambling, but it came out surprisingly gentle. “Ames, the first word you used to describe your boyfriend was ‘stable’. Right after you let slip that you’re confused about your feelings for Jake. And you’re upset enough to call me at 2am. It just all sounds to me like you’re not quite happy. Scratch that Ames, you sound distraught.”

“Listen, Mattie, I know you’re not Teddy’s biggest fan, but I’m 29. Stable is what I  _ should _ want. You got married at my age! That sounds pretty stable to me!”

“Sure, yes, it’s stable, but I didn’t marry Nicky because she was  _ stable _ . I married her because she makes me happy. Because she makes me laugh and because she knows me better than anyone else. Because I  _ love her _ .”

Silence rang out as Amy grappled with having her own words thrown back at her in such a way. He knew she had called him for reassurance, but she had conveniently forgotten he was a Santiago too. No Santiago would ever compromise a cause they truly believed in, and in this case that was his sister’s happiness.

Just as a smug grin crept over Mateo’s face, Amy’s stubbornness spoke up: “I  _ do _ love Teddy. And anyway, Jake is not going to be around for a while, and by the time he’s back he’ll have realised he never meant any of it in the first place.” She sounded almost disappointed. “It’ll give me some time to think it over and sort out this mess.”

“And in the meantime… are you sorting this out with or without Teddy?” he asked carefully.

“With. I love him.”

“Don’t you think it’s maybe a little unfair to him to stay with him while deciding whether or not you’d actually like to be with someone else?”

“No. I’ll be honest with him, I promise, and because he’s mature –  _ unlike Jake –  _ he’ll understand.”

Mateo sighed and simultaneously suppressed a yawn. She had clearly made up her mind and he really did need to get up early tomorrow. “Just promise me you won’t simply make a pros and cons list to make the decision for you. This is one of those instances where you let your heart make the decision.”

“I love you, Mattie.”

The line went dead and his phone went dark. Only when climbing into bed did he realise she had never made the promise.

He was suddenly transported fifteen years into the past, climbing into Amy’s bed instead of his own shared bed with Nicky. He would beg her to promise she’d switch off the lights, to put her flashcards away, to go to sleep. She would always laugh, say a quick “I love you, Mattie,” before gently pushing him out of her room, never promising a thing. The dark circles under her eyes the next morning were proof enough to Mateo of his sister’s decision after he left.

This time he hoped he had done more than just make her a big thermos of coffee, hoping it would get her through her test at least – this time he hoped she switched the lights off before those dark circles formed.

But because he knew Amy, he sent up a quick prayer that Jake would stick around, if for no other reason than that his sister deserved to laugh.


	2. Rafael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully I'll be able to keep updating every Monday evening but I don't know yet if that will be doable. I'm already working on the next chapter so hopefully I'll manage to finish that in between homework for next week. The brother in this chapter, Rafael, is definitely my favourite brother, at least at this point, and writing him was so so fun. I hope you love him as much as I do!

“Mum? I'm home!” 

Instead of the warm welcome he had come to expect as the baby of the family he was greeted by a loud shushing noise. 

“Hush, Rafael! I'm on the phone.” The voice came from further in the house, and just as Rafael dropped his bags to go find his mother he heard her mutter into the phone: “No , no, mija. Just your brother, don't worry. Go on.” 

That made more sense. Of all the people in the world, Rafael was well aware there were only a few who could compete with him for his mother's attention. His sister was one of them. 

Not that he minded, really; it had always worked out in his favour. The eight Santiago children spammed thirteen years, and with Rafael all the way at the end that put him exactly ten years behind Amy. That meant that until Amy moved out at 18 he was always young enough to get the attention he wanted with Amy as distraction when he got caught up in some mischief. While in his teens, his sister continued to provide much needed distractions as Rafael snuck out (or snuck others in) with all the milestones she was reaching in her life: starting college, finishing college, starting at the police academy, becoming a cop, getting shot for the first time.

So yeah, he and his sister had a good thing going between them, even if it was unbeknownst to her.

Sure, he felt guilty occasionally, particularly when Mateo or Diego would send him a look after he got away with yet another thing their mother really shouldn't have let slip so easily. But Rafael was well aware life wouldn't continue being served to him on a golden platter, so he was determined to take all the good things that came to him without thinking too hard about it, as long as it lasted: his siblings’ binders of notes passed down to him, his natural ease at school (which especially the ever-studying Diego held against him), his mother's blind eye, his pre-med scholarship, his mother doing his laundry…

Which was, of course, why he was here. He backtracked to the hall to collect his laundry while he waited for his mother to end her call. When he walked into the kitchen a minute later she was just finishing up. 

“Rafael, sweetheart, have you heard from your sister lately? Want to say a few words to her now?”

He gestured for the phone, knowing his mother would not be satisfied until he had spoken to Amy.

“Hey there, Little One,” she greeted, a smile in her voice. 

“Oh Amy, predictable as always.”

Though he mocked her, the truth was he rather liked the way the eldest three - Dylan, Mateo and Amy - called him Little One. Of course, his real name would have been preferable, but that was beside the question. Since he was the youngest of eight, all his siblings claimed they were unable to ever remember his name, and as a result he had been referred to as everything from Little One to Hey You to Number Eight. To a lot worse - the brothers closest to him in age were more imaginative, their creativity spurred by the annoyance of being pushed into the background by Rafael’s presence. 

Amy just laughed at his jab. “How's pre-med treating you?”

“Any bullet wounds you need me to look at?” 

“Not right-”

“Hey babe? Oh sorry, who're you talking to?” A male voice suddenly interrupted his sister on her end of the line. He sounded a little distant, clearly not speaking into the phone.

Amy remained dead silent and a pause stretched out, during which Rafael could only imagine Amy freaking out about what he had just overheard.

“It isn't your mum is it? Oh god, you're dad?” the voice asked, more than a little frantic.

“Jake!” She shushed him indignantly.

At this point Rafael couldn't help himself, he laughed. 

“I'm glad you're having fun talking to your sister. You kids should all talk more,” his mum called from the other room, obviously listening in carefully to her children's' conversation. Rafael got up to move further away from her prying ears, anticipating the turn this conversation was about to take.

“Oh yes mum, for sure,” he called.

“Rafael! What did she say?” Amy finally addressed him again. 

“Oh so now you suddenly remember my name.”

“Yes, yes, Rafael. Please?” 

She sounded so terrified he immediately took pity on her. He knew full well that had it been let's say Diego or the twins he would have continued the harmless torture a little longer, but as it turned out even Rafael had a soft spot for his sister. 

“Chill. She just asked if we were having fun.”

“Oh thank god,” she said, breathing an audible sigh of relief. 

“What did you think she'd asked? Whether you had a boy stowed away somewhere while you were on the phone with her?”

“Yes, that. Exactly that.” She didn't even call him out on his sarcasm, just went along with it. Or maybe she really had feared exactly that. 

“So… Boyfriend? Fling? And before you say anything, remember mum is just next door.” She was actually a floor away by now, but big difference.

“You're horrible.” After a little pause she added: “Boyfriend.”

“Cool. Name? Surname? Eye and hair colour?” That last information wasn't strictly necessary but it was always good to push a sibling's buttons. Plus, it would make it easier to check if he'd found the right guy online later. 

Amy sighed but gave him the information. 

“Thanks. One more thing.” He had tried to get this same promise from a brother or two before by holding something over their head but it had never worked. Hopefully this time would be different. “No more calling me Little One. Which means: call me Rafael, and not: think of a worse nickname and start using that.”

“Rafael… it's honestly not that simple. Half of it is habit.” She went quiet for a while but he could make out the sound of fingers tapping on wood, so he assumed she was thinking it through. “Okay, here's my offer: an occasional Rafael, around 50% of the time, so it doesn't matter if I slip into old habits. The rest of the time is ‘Little One’ of course, nothing else.”

He thought the offer over for a second. “Fine. But then I get to talk to him right now. Hand him the phone.”

“Fine!” she agreed, exasperated.

For a second the line was silent, then the sound of the phone being passed along.

“Umm hi?” a male voice said, almost as if it were a question. 

“Hey! Jake, right?”

“Yeah.” He still sounded hesitant.

“Great!” Rafael was a little too pleased with himself, but he couldn't help the grin that curled his lips. “Listen, in my family, if there's anything special going on in Amy's life, then the rest of us are left alone for the most part. As her boyfriend I'm sure you understand your responsibility to make sure us Santiago brothers can escape our parents from time to time. You get me? I for one would love to have a Saturday night go by without a phone call from my mother, for example.”

“Are you in college? But how are you supposed to party? Isn't that the main reason people go to college?” The man sounded seriously confused at the prospect of going to college for something like  _ learning _ . For a second Rafael worried his sister was playing him; there was just no way Amy Santiago could be together with someone like that. 

Before he could recover from the shock, Jake was talking again, louder and slower, as if he wanted someone to overhear. Presumably Amy was looking at him funny. “I mean: are you sure you're not doing anything illegal at these parties?”

“I'm 21, I can drink.”

“You didn't actually answer the question.” Now he actually sounded concerned Rafael might be breaking the law.

“What, are you a cop as well? Never mind, of course you are. Fine, I won't do anything illegal.”

“Cool. Okay, she's out of earshot. Down to business. Tell me all the incriminating Amy deets! Do you have pictures of her with braces? Oh my god! Do you have a video of her playing the French horn?” His voice had raised at least an octave by the end of his sentence in excitement. 

“You do realise I'm ten years younger than Amy, right? I barely even remember the time when she lived at home.”

“Oh, you’re the Little One!” He seemed pleased with himself for working that one out. A true detective. 

“Rafael. But yes.”

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Can I give the phone back to Amy now? I have, you know, bad guys to catch. Text me those videos?”

“Yeah, yeah. Go catch those Hans Grubers.”

Rafael laughed as he heard Jake freak out to Amy. “Ames! Your brother made a Die Hard reference! Your family is _so_ _cool_!”

“Yes, babe,” he could hear her reply in the background. A second later her voice was clear as she took the phone back. “Last time I checked you don't watch movies from before you were born.”

“No,” he admitted. “But you do search for ‘Die Hard one month anniversary gift’ apparently. And you don't log out of the computer at home.” 

“Rafael!” she sputtered. 

“What? All I wanted to do was look up that boyfriend of yours, make sure he's not a serial killer, you know? And then I happened to notice you were logged in.”

“And your finger slipped on the ‘history’ button?”

“I'm glad you get me, sis. Love you!” he sang, mainly in order to annoy her. 

“Love you too, Rafael, “ she huffed. 

Then she hung up.

‘Love’. Of course he knew his siblings loved him, just like he loved them despite whatever their most recent petty argument was. It was just that that love was not often outwardly expressed towards Rafael. 

‘Rafael’. The name itself spoken by his sister sounded like a second ‘I love you’.

Still logged into Amy's account he typed into the search bar: _ I would never have told mum _ .

He hoped she'd check her history some time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed and that you loved Rafael as much as I do!  
> I would love to hear from you in the comments, and if you have any prompts or ideas you can leave those there too. Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and make my day.
> 
> Come talk to me on tumblr! @nataliereneewalkr

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!  
> I would love to hear from you in the comments, and if you have any prompts or ideas you can leave those there too. Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated and make my day.
> 
> Come talk to me on tumblr! @nataliereneewalkr


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